(Denver, Colo. -- Sept. 14, 2007) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will present today a Performance and Innovation in the State Revolving Fund Creating Environmental Success (PISCES) Award to the Pickerel Lake Sanitary District, Grenville, S.D. for constructing a new wastewater collection and treatment system.

“This EPA award recognizes the innovative use of South Dakota's Clean Water State Revolving Fund program funds to improve water quality for the 950 permanent and seasonal residents of the Pickerel Lake area," said EPA Region 8 Administrator Robert E. Roberts.

The Pickerel Lake Sanitary District constructed a small collection system and an artificial wetland treatment system when it was determined that the residents' on-site, individual septic systems around the lake were failing. The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources concluded that the on-site systems were likely contributors to the presence of fecal bacteria levels in the lake.

The district was awarded two Clean Water State Revolving Fund low interest loans totaling more than $1.5 million and two state grants totalling $600,000 to help finance the project that replaced the individual septic tanks with the new water treatment system.

The State Revolving Fund programs, authorized and funded by the Clean Water Act, allow states to provide low interest loans to wastewater systems to assist them in meeting wastewater infrastructure needs. The states then use these monies to select projects for funding.